


Rebirth and Renewal

by anyjay



Category: Sports Night
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 21:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2402717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anyjay/pseuds/anyjay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We’re talking about Natalie. And you. You and Natalie. How is going to a club with the woman you love worse than malaria?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebirth and Renewal

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my livejournal November 16, 2011.  
> Disclaimer: I make no money from fanfic. I have no rights to Sports Night. I just really miss the show.  
> Spoilers (if anyone cares at this late date) for the final episode.  
> Beta'ed by Mr. Jay

“I’m just saying,” Casey said. He followed Dan out of their office (well, okay, Dan’s office) into the bullpen, where an impromptu party had broken out.

“Uhuh,” Dan said.

“I’m just saying,” Casey repeated.

“I know what you’re saying.” Dan spoke loudly to be heard over the music. “And I’m not saying you’re wrong.” His voice got even louder as he saw Dana coming towards them. “I’m just saying Dana isn’t listening.”

“Of course I’m not listening,” Dana said, taking each of them by the arm. “I don’t listen to Casey when he’s wrong.”

“You don’t listen to me when I’m right, either,” Casey said, but he was smiling. Their jobs had just been saved and Dana was ragging on him. Everything was right in his world.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dana said. “If that ever happens, I’m sure I’ll listen.” She pulled Casey and Dan out into the center of the bullpen. Then she climbed onto a chair.

“Sports Night is REBORN!” Dana announced.

Everybody cheered.

“And I ask you, my friends, QUO VADIMUS? Where are we going?”

“Anthony’s!” shouted many voices together.

Casey just shook his head sadly.

“And WHY are we going to Anthony’s?” she asked.

“Because you don’t change the luck,” those same voices answered.

“That’s right.” Dana gave Casey a triumphant glance. “You don’t change the luck.” She grabbed his shoulder to steady herself, and climbed off the chair.

Casey shook his head and spoke loudly so the whole group could hear him. “This is a hugely bad idea for three reasons! And I’ll tell you what they are!

“How do you say ‘Let’s go’ in Latin?” Dana asked Jeremy.

“First,” Casey said, “we don’t want to meet our new boss for the first time in a bar. We want to meet him in a sober and professional atmosphere when we’re acting, you know, sober and professional.”

“Well, ‘vadimus’ would be ‘we are going,’” Jeremy said. “so maybe—”

“Close enough,” said Dana.

“Secondly—” Casey said.

“VADIMUS, MUCHACHOS!” Dana said, leading the way to the elevators.

Jeremy laughed as he and the rest of the crowd followed her out. “Muchachos isn’t Latin,” he told her.

“Maybe not,” Dana said, “but it sounded good, didn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Jeremy smiled. “It sounded real good.”

“SECONDLY,” Casey said to the rapidly emptying room.

The music cut off abruptly, and Casey looked over to see Dan standing next to Kim’s CD player.

“Come on, pardner,” Dan said. “They’re leaving without us.”

“Yeah, okay,” Casey said. He fell into step with Dan, and they followed the crowd to the elevators.

***

Isaac walked through the empty studio. He hadn’t brought his cane with him. Perhaps that’s why he stopped occasionally, resting his hand on a chair, a desk, a console.

He made his way through the entire area, from the green room to the anchor desk, to the production rooms. He sat for a few minutes in Dan and Casey’s empty office. He leaned against the doorjamb of Dana’s office, staring out over her desk at the New York City skyline. Then, smiling, he returned to his own office.

Opening the door, he was surprised to see Natalie sitting cross-legged on his desk, staring down into a glass of what he suspected was his favorite scotch.

“Natalie?” he said, “Why aren’t you celebrating with the others?”

“Jeremy and I had sex,” Natalie said.

Isaac started to close the door again. “I’ll come back later.”

“Isaac!” Natalie said.

“Okay,” Isaac said. “But just so you know, in the morning I’m hiring a staff psychiatrist so someone else can listen to everyone’s problems. I’m sure I can convince Calvin Trager that it’s a legitimate business expense. He’s met Dana, after all.”

“You think I should talk to some stranger about my sex life?” Natalie asked.

“I think you should talk to anyone who isn’t me,” Isaac said.

“But you’re the only one here.”

“Yeah, okay.” Isaac’s voice was resigned.

“Jeremy and I had sex,” Natalie repeated.

Isaac looked at her a moment. “And that’s a bad thing?” he asked.

“It was – we were saying good-bye. Continental Corp. had been sold and Sports Night was finished. We were going to end up with different jobs in different parts of the country and maybe never see each other again. So we could use sex to say ‘good-bye’ and ‘I think you’re a good person’ and maybe even ‘I forgive you,’ and it wouldn’t be awkward in the morning because there wasn’t going to be any morning. Not for us.”

“Ah,” said Isaac. “And now it’s morning?”

“And now it’s morning,” Natalie agreed.

Isaac crossed to the bar, poured himself a glass of scotch. He sat down in one of the arm chairs and took a slow sip. “Morning could be a fresh start,” he told Natalie.

“Second verse same as the first,” Natalie said. “A little bit louder and a little bit worse. What should I do, Isaac?”

“Well for starters,” Isaac said, “you can get your ass off my desk. I’m not that comfortable with people sitting on my desk.” He gestured with his hand towards another chair.

“Believe me, Isaac, I’ve a lot done more on this desk than just sit,” Natalie said, but she hopped down and sat in the chair.

“I don’t want to know,” Isaac said. “But now I’m thinking I may burn that desk and get a new one. And a lock for my door.”

“We cleaned up after,” said Natalie.

“Natalie, you remember just now when I said ‘I don’t want to know?’” Isaac asked.

“Yeah,” she said.

“I meant that,” he said.

“Oh. Okay. That’s weird,” Natalie said. “I pretty much always want to know.”

“Well, that’s where we’re different,” Isaac said.

“Yeah, that and you can keep a relationship going for almost 50 years. At the end, Jeremy and I couldn’t be together for 50 seconds without fighting.”

Isaac smiled. “You think Esther and I never fight?”

Natalie shrugged. “Not about big things,” she said. “You two are so sweet together. I remember how Esther was when you were in the hospital after your stroke. She’d do anything for you.”

Natalie took another sip of her scotch. “Jeremy won’t even go to a club with me without making a federal case about it. But I still – it would be so easy for me to fall in love with him again.”

“Esther wants me to retire,” Isaac said.

“She said that?” Natalie asked.

“When we thought Sports Night would be cancelled, she started to talk about all the things we could do when I retired – spending more time with our kids and grandkids, buying a house in Florida – maybe near Cape Canaveral – and becoming snow birds. I thought she was trying to cheer me up, trying to help me look on the bright side. But tonight I called her after the show. I told her Sports Night had been saved.”

Isaac took a sip of his drink.

“What did she say?” Natalie asked.

“She said she was happy for me,” Isaac said. “She didn’t say she was happy. She said she was happy for me. And I realized then that all the things she’d talked about doing when I retired, that wasn’t just to cheer me up. That’s the life she’d like to have, and she’d like to have it now.”

“Wow,” said Natalie. “What are you going to do?”

Isaac took another sip of his scotch. “I’m going to finish this drink. I’m going to go to Anthony’s and raise a glass with the rest of the staff. I’m going to shake Calvin Trager’s hand if he’s there. And then I’ll go home to Esther.”

“Will you guys fight?” Natalie asked.

“Of course we will.” Isaac said. He drank the last of his scotch, then stood to returned the glass to the bar. “But not tonight. And not about this. Tomorrow I’ll talk with Trager and Dana. I’ll stay with Sports Night long enough to help with the transition and make sure Dana’s got everything she needs. Then I’ll take Esther to Paris. She’s always wanted to see Paris.”

“So you’re just going to let her win?” Natalie said.

Isaac smiled. “Natalie, it’s not about winning. When your fights with your spouse get to be about who wins and who loses, you’ve already both lost. I’ll be in Paris with Esther. I think we’ll both win.”

***

Dana was disappointed that Calvin Trager wasn’t waiting for her by the bar. She spent some time questioning the bartender about his whereabouts, but all the bartender knew was that he tipped well and that he wasn’t currently within sight.

“I don’t understand,” she said, “he was here just an hour ago. In fact, he was here about seven hours ago, too. He’s been in here every night this week. The man practically lives here. No wonder he sold the place in St. Bart’s. He doesn’t need houses. He lives in bars. How can he not be here?

“There, you see,” Casey told her. “Our new boss doesn’t want to see us drunk either. We’ll meet him tomorrow, when we can be both sober and professional.”

Dana looked at Casey. “You do sober pretty good,” she said. “I don’t know about professional.”

“Hey!” Casey said. “I’m plenty professional. I am completely professional. I am completely and totally professional.”

“And just a little redundant,” Dan added, with a smile. “Come on, Casey.” He grabbed his drink and headed for the table where Kim, Elliot and Will were sitting. Casey followed him, beer in hand.

Dana looked around. “Where’s Natalie?”

“I think she’s avoiding me,” Jeremy said.

“I thought you guys were past that,” Dana said.

Jeremy laughed. “We were past it, but then we took another lap around the track.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I guess you could say we thought Sports Night was done and we already said our good-byes.” Jeremy said.

“Well, couldn’t you just say ‘hello’ again?”

Jeremy looked away. “There might have been a physical aspect to our good-byes.”

“You waved?” Dana asked.

Jeremy just looked at her.

“Oh! Physical! Got it. But you guys weren’t avoiding each other earlier today.”

Jeremy looked at her some more.

“Today? But where—”

“Isaac’s office,” Jeremy said.

“Nope, nope. I don’t want details. I thought I wanted details, but now I really, really don’t.” Dana paused a moment. “Where in Isaac’s office?”

“His desk,” Jeremy said.

“God, Jeremy!” Dana slapped him on the arm. “Didn’t you hear me when I said I didn’t want details?”

“Yeah. I also heard you when you asked –”

“Never mind that. What are you going to do now?” Dana asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you back together?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to be back together?”

“I don’t know.”

“Jeremy!” Dana slapped his arm again.

“I want the good times,” Jeremy said. “I want them so much it hurts. But we have the same fight over and over. She wants to go out. I want to stay in. She calls me boring. I call her shallow. We both end up miserable.”

Dana gave Jeremy a puzzled look. “I don’t understand how you can be such a great guy and such a knucklehead.”

“Excuse me?” Jeremy said.

“Natalie told me what you said that time, about going to Texas. You were going to go with her to Texas, even if it meant becoming a ranch hand and getting pellegra.”

“Malaria,” Jeremy corrected her.

“Same thing,” Dana said.

“It’s really not,” Jeremy said. “Pellegra is a vitamin-deficiency –”

“Jeremy, focus.” Dana said. “We’re not talking about pellagra.”

“We’re not?” Jeremy said. “But—”

“We’re talking about Natalie. And you. You and Natalie. How is going to a club with the woman you love worse than malaria?”

“I don’t dance.”

“You don’t herd cows either, but you were willing to try.”

“I was counting on the cows not laughing at me.”

“You don’t go out dancing with Natalie because there’s a possibility people will laugh at you?”

“I think it’s a mathematical certainty,” Jeremy said.

Dana gave Jeremy a frustrated look. “Dance lessons?”

“I don’t think it would help,” Jeremy said. “I’m not the most coordinated guy in the world.”

“Okay, that’s true.” Dana said. “Still you seem to think there are only two choices in the world: takeout at home or going to a club. Maybe you guys could find a compromise. Something else you could do together?

“Like what?” Jeremy asked.

“You do know that you live in New York City, right? There are thousands of things you and Natalie could do.”

“Like what?”

Dana looked at Jeremy like he was an idiot. (Jeremy was very familiar with that expression.) “I don’t know, Jeremy, something you would both enjoy, maybe something relating to an interest you two share.”

Jeremy winced. “If I say ‘like what,’ you’re going to hit me again, aren’t you?”

“I’m going to hit you anyway,” Dana said, smacking Jeremy lightly on the forehead. “Like sports, you dimwit.”

“Oh no,” Jeremy said. “I’ve had two girlfriends dump me because I only ever took them to sports games. I’m not making that mistake again.”

“Did they like sports?” Dana asked.

“Clearly not,” Jeremy said.

“Does Natalie like sports?” Dana asked.

“Oh.”

“You’re darn right ‘oh.’” Dana said. “Sports is a good place to start, but Natalie’s going to want variety, too. Try different restaurants, go to museums and comedy clubs, walk hand and hand in the park. Take her to a really good musical, one without any hoe-downs.”

“Wait,” Jeremy said, “I should be taking notes.” He searched his pockets for pen, pulled a napkin off the bar and began to write. “Sports,” he murmured. “Restaurants, museums, comedy, park, musicals, no hoe downs.” He underlined the last part and looked up at Dana. “Okay, what else?”

“Maybe you should ask her,” Dana said, nodding towards the door where Natalie and Isaac were coming in together.

“Right,” said Jeremy, but he didn’t move.

“Jeremy?”

“Yeah?”

“If you don’t go talk to Natalie right this instant, I’ll figure out a way to infect you with pellagra myself!”

“It’s not infectious,” Jeremy said. “It’s a vitamin-deficiency—”

“Jeremy!”

“I’m going,” he said.

Jeremy drew Natalie aside and began to talk with her. Pretty soon they were sitting at a table chattering away and both making additions to the napkin list.

“Hey, Isaac’s here,” Kim yelled, running up as Isaac paid for his scotch. “Everybody, Isaac’s here. It’s time for a toast!” The Sports Night staff crowded around Isaac and the bar.

Isaac smiled widely, lifted his glass and was about to speak when Kim yelled, “Sports Night is reborn!! Happy Birthday, Sports Night.”

Then she began to sing “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!”

Dana laughed and joined in. Elliot, Will and most of the rest of the staff sang along as well.

“No!” Dan yelled “Stop! Guys! The intellectual property cops are EVERYWHERE!”

Laughing, the group kept singing, starting the song over when they reached the end. Frustrated, Dan tried to drown them out by belting out Frere Jacques at the top of his lungs. The group just got louder.

“Casey, Jeremy, Natalie, come on, help me out.” Dan said. “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.”

The sing-off got louder as Dan’s reinforcements arrived. Isaac had to raise his voice to speak to the bartender. “Just so you know,” he said “I’m hiring a staff psychiatrist in the morning.”

“Huh.” the bartender said. “Do you think one will be enough?”

-end-


End file.
